Sunday, July 15, 2007
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Public Transport pet peeve number 1
Remember this post about public transport? It was my top ten (or more) things I hate about public transport.
Well, I've recently come to realise that there was one that I missed. A BIG one that I missed. It's gazumping the rest and heading straight to number one.
PEOPLE WHO SNIFF ON TRAINS!
I hate you all. Take a bloody tissue with you on the train if you have a cold. I hate you. Don't sniff every two bloody seconds and sneeze and spread your germs around.
I particularly hate you all because now I have a cold and I'm sniffling myself.
Note to self: remember tissues for train journey tomorrow morning.
Well, I've recently come to realise that there was one that I missed. A BIG one that I missed. It's gazumping the rest and heading straight to number one.
PEOPLE WHO SNIFF ON TRAINS!
I hate you all. Take a bloody tissue with you on the train if you have a cold. I hate you. Don't sniff every two bloody seconds and sneeze and spread your germs around.
I particularly hate you all because now I have a cold and I'm sniffling myself.
Note to self: remember tissues for train journey tomorrow morning.
Live Earth - Sydney
Yes, as the title would suggest, I had an amazing weekend. My gorgeous sister Petrina visited and we went along to Live Earth Sydney. It was an amazing day - such a great atmosphere and fantastic acts. Just as a note to everyone who read the articles in the paper and were wondering, I have to recommend that seating is a good way to go for events like the one I attended on Saturday.
The place was packed to the rafters and I have to say it was the biggest concert I've been to in terms of crowd numbers. I think I've been to bigger festivals, but for a one-stage show it was a pretty impressive crowd.
The absolute highlights of the day are very closely tied. John Butler Trio are an old favourite of mine and I've seen them play a few times before, but this was by far the best gig I've seen. They also clearly have the greenie credentials and were really fired up about such an enthusiastic crowd and it really showed.
Seeing Crowded House live was a pretty amazing experience. It was great to see a band I enjoy who I had thought that I would never get to see. The crowd went wild and it sounded like every person there was on their feet and singing along with every word. And they've still got it - they have a real ability to make a connection with the crowd on a really personal level.
Runners up were Missy Higgins, Eskimo Joe and Blue King Brown, who I had never heard of before, but who's CD I will be putting on my birthday list.
Even the weather stayed good for us (which is a big ask given the weather chaos this winter) and all together it was one of those days that you just never want to end.
The place was packed to the rafters and I have to say it was the biggest concert I've been to in terms of crowd numbers. I think I've been to bigger festivals, but for a one-stage show it was a pretty impressive crowd.
The absolute highlights of the day are very closely tied. John Butler Trio are an old favourite of mine and I've seen them play a few times before, but this was by far the best gig I've seen. They also clearly have the greenie credentials and were really fired up about such an enthusiastic crowd and it really showed.
Seeing Crowded House live was a pretty amazing experience. It was great to see a band I enjoy who I had thought that I would never get to see. The crowd went wild and it sounded like every person there was on their feet and singing along with every word. And they've still got it - they have a real ability to make a connection with the crowd on a really personal level.
Runners up were Missy Higgins, Eskimo Joe and Blue King Brown, who I had never heard of before, but who's CD I will be putting on my birthday list.
Even the weather stayed good for us (which is a big ask given the weather chaos this winter) and all together it was one of those days that you just never want to end.
Geek time
If you happen to have 20 minutes to kill and are feeling particularly geeky, this is an extremely interesting read
Tuesday, July 03, 2007
The Big Day
Today was the big day - my big television debut!!!
OK, that's a bit of a lie. I ended up on local TV news for Burnie, Tasmania, when I was in primary school for being part of a jump rope for heart team and met Fiona Coote. I suppose that was technically my television debut.
And then there was that time when that thing happened and I had quite a lot of TV interviews and such. But that's a whole different post for another day.
But anyway, today was a big day for me and Ronene and Australian television.
It was so weird seeing myself on a show that I have watched on many occasions in the past - Ready Steady Cook.
Before you ask (I know you're going to), you can check out the recipes here. For the record, I was soundly beaten by an outstanding strawberry meringue roulade. I think we did pretty well, though, with
Crumbed goat’s cheese with asparagus, tomato and saffron salsa
Mushroom and goat’s cheese arancini with pesto
Mushroom, asparagus and goat’s cheese risotto and, last but not least;
Upside-down apple and raspberry tart
I had to note that the whole thing somehow looked a bit like a home movie. Not because of any lack of production skill, but just because that's the only medium I'm used to seeing myself on the small screen.
I also noted that I found it pretty cringe-worthy. I think it's even worse when you know the daggy comments are coming. Something on par with seeing yourself telling a dad-joke.
I noticed that I liked my hair better that short. And that it has grown quite a lot since the taping.
So, that's it. All over and done with. Of course, if you watch this space, I'll see what i can do to try and work out how to get some of it online for friends and family. If you want to see it, you may have to pretend to be one or the other!
For those that caught it, hope you enjoyed it. For those that didn't, guess that's lucky for one of us!
J.
p.s. check out the continuity problem at the end. A prize for anyone (other than Ronene, Tresha or Harriet) who can pick it!
OK, that's a bit of a lie. I ended up on local TV news for Burnie, Tasmania, when I was in primary school for being part of a jump rope for heart team and met Fiona Coote. I suppose that was technically my television debut.
And then there was that time when that thing happened and I had quite a lot of TV interviews and such. But that's a whole different post for another day.
But anyway, today was a big day for me and Ronene and Australian television.
It was so weird seeing myself on a show that I have watched on many occasions in the past - Ready Steady Cook.
Before you ask (I know you're going to), you can check out the recipes here. For the record, I was soundly beaten by an outstanding strawberry meringue roulade. I think we did pretty well, though, with
Crumbed goat’s cheese with asparagus, tomato and saffron salsa
Mushroom and goat’s cheese arancini with pesto
Mushroom, asparagus and goat’s cheese risotto and, last but not least;
Upside-down apple and raspberry tart
I had to note that the whole thing somehow looked a bit like a home movie. Not because of any lack of production skill, but just because that's the only medium I'm used to seeing myself on the small screen.
I also noted that I found it pretty cringe-worthy. I think it's even worse when you know the daggy comments are coming. Something on par with seeing yourself telling a dad-joke.
I noticed that I liked my hair better that short. And that it has grown quite a lot since the taping.
So, that's it. All over and done with. Of course, if you watch this space, I'll see what i can do to try and work out how to get some of it online for friends and family. If you want to see it, you may have to pretend to be one or the other!
For those that caught it, hope you enjoyed it. For those that didn't, guess that's lucky for one of us!
J.
p.s. check out the continuity problem at the end. A prize for anyone (other than Ronene, Tresha or Harriet) who can pick it!
Friday, June 29, 2007
Act Your Age and Not Your Shoe Size
I read this article in the paper on the weekend. It was about how some celebrities dress too old or young for their ages.
I'm not so sure that I'm prepared to go on the record with my high-fashion advice to the beautiful people (I'm a card-carrying dag, after all), but I do think the concept holds in certain other circumstances. Like the workplace, for example.
Obviously I'm getting at a point here (trust me, I'll make it there eventually).
There's this woman who sits kind of nearby. I don't actually work with her, but I sit near enough to overhear a lot of what goes on.
So this woman seems generally pretty good at her job, and sounds as though she knows what she's talking about. The problem is that she doesn't seem to have gotten past her teenage giggling stage.
I'm really not one for going in for stereotypes of ageism, but you should hear this woman. If I was one of her stakeholders, I'd be left seriously questioning how whether this woman was actually listening to my serious concerns. Or listening at all to what I was saying, as she kind of sounds as though she has headphones in tuned to the Qantas comedy channel.
So what do you think, readers? Am I being too judgemental? Or is there a time and a place for the giggle that does not involve a middle-aged woman who is supposed to be a professional?
I'm not so sure that I'm prepared to go on the record with my high-fashion advice to the beautiful people (I'm a card-carrying dag, after all), but I do think the concept holds in certain other circumstances. Like the workplace, for example.
Obviously I'm getting at a point here (trust me, I'll make it there eventually).
There's this woman who sits kind of nearby. I don't actually work with her, but I sit near enough to overhear a lot of what goes on.
So this woman seems generally pretty good at her job, and sounds as though she knows what she's talking about. The problem is that she doesn't seem to have gotten past her teenage giggling stage.
I'm really not one for going in for stereotypes of ageism, but you should hear this woman. If I was one of her stakeholders, I'd be left seriously questioning how whether this woman was actually listening to my serious concerns. Or listening at all to what I was saying, as she kind of sounds as though she has headphones in tuned to the Qantas comedy channel.
So what do you think, readers? Am I being too judgemental? Or is there a time and a place for the giggle that does not involve a middle-aged woman who is supposed to be a professional?
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Behind the times
I love blogs. Good ones, anyway. I like the medium and I appreciate the way a well written blog can broaden your perspective on the world and give you a sneak peek into things that are important to others.
I have a number of blogs that I check on a daily basis. some of which I've linked to over on the side there
<----
In a number of these blogs I've heard reference to this mysterious thing called an RSS Feed. Not knowing what this was, I think I somehow created a picture in my mind of what this mysterious RSS feed thing might be*. In my head, it was something like a leader board like those they use in newsrooms and share dealing rooms with all the new stuff scrolling along around the room in letters made from red dots. Somehow I had myself convinced that RSS was something similar on my PC. This didn't really sound all that exciting to me. And since I usually check all these blogs from work, and I don't have access to install anything on my PC (even if it were working).
So, maintaining an impressive balance of both denial and delusion, I have continued checking blogs individually.
Until yesterday.
I finally got out of my own head long enough to find out what this was all about. Needless to say there's no scrolling of anything and no software download requirements. Pretty much nothing at all like anything I thought.
So if, like me, you have never thought to check out RSS feeds, I would urge you to do so immediately. Maybe here at Bloglines. It's a really excellent thing where you just put in the web address of all your favourite blogs and it give you a list and tells you if there have been any updates. You just click on each out of the list and that particular blog is available in a panel to the left. Couldn't be easier and it stops me checking my stack of regular pages every day, whether they've been updated or not. And they're all in the one place.
Couldn't be easier. Seriously. Maybe I should have checked it out earlier.
*In a somewhat similar fashion to the way I create directions for myself when driving, think I know where I'm going, and then get myself horribly lost.
I have a number of blogs that I check on a daily basis. some of which I've linked to over on the side there
<----
In a number of these blogs I've heard reference to this mysterious thing called an RSS Feed. Not knowing what this was, I think I somehow created a picture in my mind of what this mysterious RSS feed thing might be*. In my head, it was something like a leader board like those they use in newsrooms and share dealing rooms with all the new stuff scrolling along around the room in letters made from red dots. Somehow I had myself convinced that RSS was something similar on my PC. This didn't really sound all that exciting to me. And since I usually check all these blogs from work, and I don't have access to install anything on my PC (even if it were working).
So, maintaining an impressive balance of both denial and delusion, I have continued checking blogs individually.
Until yesterday.
I finally got out of my own head long enough to find out what this was all about. Needless to say there's no scrolling of anything and no software download requirements. Pretty much nothing at all like anything I thought.
So if, like me, you have never thought to check out RSS feeds, I would urge you to do so immediately. Maybe here at Bloglines. It's a really excellent thing where you just put in the web address of all your favourite blogs and it give you a list and tells you if there have been any updates. You just click on each out of the list and that particular blog is available in a panel to the left. Couldn't be easier and it stops me checking my stack of regular pages every day, whether they've been updated or not. And they're all in the one place.
Couldn't be easier. Seriously. Maybe I should have checked it out earlier.
*In a somewhat similar fashion to the way I create directions for myself when driving, think I know where I'm going, and then get myself horribly lost.
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
An update
In case you're interested, today was a far less frustrating day. I only had one visit from the computer guy - and the was earlier in the day than yesterday and therefore somewhat less smelly.
Whilst I am still homeless (office-wise, not actually homeless) apparently I should be back working at my own desk by Friday. Just in time to move floors to a new desk.
Whilst I am still homeless (office-wise, not actually homeless) apparently I should be back working at my own desk by Friday. Just in time to move floors to a new desk.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Proof
Proof that the universe, in its infinite wisdom (unclear though it may be when you're mired in it) has a way of its own.
If you read the last post, you can probably figure out that I was really annoyed and frustrated and cranky today. I even felt the need to apologise to the guys I've been sitting with for my crankiness as I left this afternoon...helped in part by another visit from the smelly computer guy, who told me he had to take my computer and replace the hard drive...should have it back in the next 2-3 days.
It was pouring with rain and miserable when I left work and I was feeling pretty miserable on the trip home.
Then I arrived home and checked my phone (that I accidentally forgot this morning) and everything changed.
So.....
Good News number 1
Bec had a healthy baby boy - Benjamin Christopher, 4.235kgs and 53cm this afternoon!!!!
congratulations to you and Luke and all your families!! Can't wait to meet him!
Good News number 2
I'm going to be an Aunty again!!!!!!!! Total surprise on this one...my sister Mel is going to have a baby in December, a cousin for the gorgeous Kara. It might have thrown a little spanner in the works for the family Christmas plans, but I don't think anyone's too worried.
And suddenly I'm in a good mood!
If you read the last post, you can probably figure out that I was really annoyed and frustrated and cranky today. I even felt the need to apologise to the guys I've been sitting with for my crankiness as I left this afternoon...helped in part by another visit from the smelly computer guy, who told me he had to take my computer and replace the hard drive...should have it back in the next 2-3 days.
It was pouring with rain and miserable when I left work and I was feeling pretty miserable on the trip home.
Then I arrived home and checked my phone (that I accidentally forgot this morning) and everything changed.
So.....
Good News number 1
Bec had a healthy baby boy - Benjamin Christopher, 4.235kgs and 53cm this afternoon!!!!
congratulations to you and Luke and all your families!! Can't wait to meet him!
Good News number 2
I'm going to be an Aunty again!!!!!!!! Total surprise on this one...my sister Mel is going to have a baby in December, a cousin for the gorgeous Kara. It might have thrown a little spanner in the works for the family Christmas plans, but I don't think anyone's too worried.
And suddenly I'm in a good mood!
Hello again
Hope you're not expecting a big brain-dump like yesterday's plethora of posts. I'm afraid you've just got little old me whingeing about bloody computers again.
On Thursday my work PC died. I couldn't even get it to start up when I came in in the morning.
This, in itself, is not particularly unusual. The stupid things has died and been rebuilt at least once in the last couple of weeks prior.
Currently, one of my colleagues who sits in front of me is off on her honeymoon. Given that it's really close to my desk, and therefore all my stuff, it seemed like a good idea to use her computer until mine was fixed.
Unfortunately that was a naive hope and her computer wouldn't start up either. So 2 computers down at 10am. Not a bad start.
Since then I've been playing musical computers - setting myself up wherever someone is away.
Technical support did try come to see me on Friday. Unfortunately they got the right floor in the wrong building.
Several calls to the help desk to try to get some traction on fixing something were fruitless prior to this morning due to a 3 day service level. Yep. You read correctly. 3 days to even come have a look.
At 9.15 this morning service level had officially been exceeded. I actually had a meeting until 10.30 so I even gave a bit of grace time.
To say I was a little cranky on the phone at 10.30 might be a bit of an understatement.
Finally this afternoon a man came to look at the machine. I'm not going to even start on his body odour issues because they're not really that important to the story. Suffice it to say, people 4 seats away commented after he had left.
Anyway, in the way of tech support people everywhere, he suggested doing the same thing they did last time (remember, that rebuild thing that clearly didn't work?). Then he tried to blame the external hard drive I use. The same type of hard drive that everyone in my area has plugged into their same type of computers.
In the end, he did a few things and managed to get the thing to boot up. He then left me to restart the machine 3-4 times to see if the fix would hold. Given that every time we do this in our organisation, all software updates, patches and things upload and synchronise, a full reboot can take some time. It took me about an hour to do 3 reboots.
After finishing what I was doing, I decided it might be time to move back to my regular desk (for the next 3 days, anyway). I packed up all the gear I've been carting from desk to desk and headed over.
I managed to log in successfully. Good sign so far. Then went to do the first thing I always do when logging in, I went to start my email.
At this point I noticed that there were some shortcuts missing from my start menu. Then I noticed the missing applications. Like email. And anything from the Office suite (except Publisher, oddly enough).
So back on the phone to Mr Smelly. He came to visit again - about half an hour later. He did a few more magic things and then told me to try logging on again in about 10 minutes, muttering something unintelligible about profiles.
I'm a generous person, so I left it 20 minutes. I went over and fired up the PC.
I'm still waiting for it to finish booting up. I feel like I've basically wasted most of my day running between desks to check progress and restart that stupid thing.
Do you think I'm a little frustrated by now?
On Thursday my work PC died. I couldn't even get it to start up when I came in in the morning.
This, in itself, is not particularly unusual. The stupid things has died and been rebuilt at least once in the last couple of weeks prior.
Currently, one of my colleagues who sits in front of me is off on her honeymoon. Given that it's really close to my desk, and therefore all my stuff, it seemed like a good idea to use her computer until mine was fixed.
Unfortunately that was a naive hope and her computer wouldn't start up either. So 2 computers down at 10am. Not a bad start.
Since then I've been playing musical computers - setting myself up wherever someone is away.
Technical support did try come to see me on Friday. Unfortunately they got the right floor in the wrong building.
Several calls to the help desk to try to get some traction on fixing something were fruitless prior to this morning due to a 3 day service level. Yep. You read correctly. 3 days to even come have a look.
At 9.15 this morning service level had officially been exceeded. I actually had a meeting until 10.30 so I even gave a bit of grace time.
To say I was a little cranky on the phone at 10.30 might be a bit of an understatement.
Finally this afternoon a man came to look at the machine. I'm not going to even start on his body odour issues because they're not really that important to the story. Suffice it to say, people 4 seats away commented after he had left.
Anyway, in the way of tech support people everywhere, he suggested doing the same thing they did last time (remember, that rebuild thing that clearly didn't work?). Then he tried to blame the external hard drive I use. The same type of hard drive that everyone in my area has plugged into their same type of computers.
In the end, he did a few things and managed to get the thing to boot up. He then left me to restart the machine 3-4 times to see if the fix would hold. Given that every time we do this in our organisation, all software updates, patches and things upload and synchronise, a full reboot can take some time. It took me about an hour to do 3 reboots.
After finishing what I was doing, I decided it might be time to move back to my regular desk (for the next 3 days, anyway). I packed up all the gear I've been carting from desk to desk and headed over.
I managed to log in successfully. Good sign so far. Then went to do the first thing I always do when logging in, I went to start my email.
At this point I noticed that there were some shortcuts missing from my start menu. Then I noticed the missing applications. Like email. And anything from the Office suite (except Publisher, oddly enough).
So back on the phone to Mr Smelly. He came to visit again - about half an hour later. He did a few more magic things and then told me to try logging on again in about 10 minutes, muttering something unintelligible about profiles.
I'm a generous person, so I left it 20 minutes. I went over and fired up the PC.
I'm still waiting for it to finish booting up. I feel like I've basically wasted most of my day running between desks to check progress and restart that stupid thing.
Do you think I'm a little frustrated by now?
Monday, June 25, 2007
SALE, SALE Up to 50% OFF!!!!!!
(Another one from the archives)
There's this little arcade that I go to to buy breakfast or lunch a couple of times a week. On my way there, I pass a jewellery store.
It's one of those kind of hole-in-the-wall places with an open front and a roll-a-door that shuts down when the place closes rather than walls and a door.
Every day when I pass there, I see people checking out the bargains. Yes, the bargains for the big SALE, SALE Up to 50% OFF!!!!!!
I thought a sale was supposed to be an event. Something out of the ordinary, that offers better than usual bargains.
But no, this shop apparently discounts all their stock 365 days per year.
Shouldn't that just make it a discount shop? Lowest prices guaranteed? Surely this is fraud??
There's this little arcade that I go to to buy breakfast or lunch a couple of times a week. On my way there, I pass a jewellery store.
It's one of those kind of hole-in-the-wall places with an open front and a roll-a-door that shuts down when the place closes rather than walls and a door.
Every day when I pass there, I see people checking out the bargains. Yes, the bargains for the big SALE, SALE Up to 50% OFF!!!!!!
I thought a sale was supposed to be an event. Something out of the ordinary, that offers better than usual bargains.
But no, this shop apparently discounts all their stock 365 days per year.
Shouldn't that just make it a discount shop? Lowest prices guaranteed? Surely this is fraud??
And then there was today
Sorry if you're reading these posts through. I know I may have jumped around a bit, chronologically speaking, but I kind of got caught up with publishing a few draft posts and threw in some stuff from today as I thought of it. You don't have to get the order, just accept that's the way it is and we'll all be happy.
As for today, it's been a strange one. Firstly, I've been a little disoriented with PC issues at work for 3 days now have meant that I'm playing musical desks. It's been good in a way - I'm making lots of new friends!
Then this morning our wider business group was called into one of those meetings that all corporate workers know and hate - the RESTRUCTURE ANNOUNCEMENT!!!!
This was followed by oodles of rumour and speculation. Another teary meeting as my manager advised us she no longer has a role and a shock to me as I discovered that after only 2 months in the role I've been working towards for the last 18 months, my team is being dissolved and I'm being transferred as a permanent analyst to a product team.
The transfer in itself isn't such a bad thing. I know the team that I'm joining and know and like the new manager I'll be reporting into. It is a little bit limiting, however, in terms of development and advancement (the two key reasons I applied for this job).
So the team and I are all in a bit of shock this evening. I'm generally pretty positive about hings working themselves out, and they probably will, but I'm just going to need a bit of time to process.
As for today, it's been a strange one. Firstly, I've been a little disoriented with PC issues at work for 3 days now have meant that I'm playing musical desks. It's been good in a way - I'm making lots of new friends!
Then this morning our wider business group was called into one of those meetings that all corporate workers know and hate - the RESTRUCTURE ANNOUNCEMENT!!!!
This was followed by oodles of rumour and speculation. Another teary meeting as my manager advised us she no longer has a role and a shock to me as I discovered that after only 2 months in the role I've been working towards for the last 18 months, my team is being dissolved and I'm being transferred as a permanent analyst to a product team.
The transfer in itself isn't such a bad thing. I know the team that I'm joining and know and like the new manager I'll be reporting into. It is a little bit limiting, however, in terms of development and advancement (the two key reasons I applied for this job).
So the team and I are all in a bit of shock this evening. I'm generally pretty positive about hings working themselves out, and they probably will, but I'm just going to need a bit of time to process.
Good Luck
Best of Luck Bec and Luke and baby bean - who'd going to be born tomorrow 'cos he's stubborn like his mum!
Hope all goes seamlessly for Baby's first day out in the world.
Hope all goes seamlessly for Baby's first day out in the world.
What Jacki did on Hiatus - part 3
I went to the movies to see Shrek 3 (not as good as the first one, but even a second-rate Shrek is better than most movies on the first go)
I had a great dinner with David and Angelika (thanks for the stereo system), who coincidentally have news today! ;-)
I actually managed a bit of quiet time at home, not feeling bad at all about watching a stack of DVDs because it was so miserable outside.
I had a massage on the weekend. That's always a good thing.
I went to a cool (that's "cool" in the nerdy sense of the word) forum to see the authors of a book I'm currently reading. I'm not going to tell you who or what book. Even I know it's too geeky to admit in public.
I've run the usual gauntlet of farewell lunches drinks etc for various people at work either a) moving overseas b) changing roles or c) keeping their role but moving interstate.
So, as you can see, you really haven't missed much...It could even be argued that I've been a little dull.
I had a great dinner with David and Angelika (thanks for the stereo system), who coincidentally have news today! ;-)
I actually managed a bit of quiet time at home, not feeling bad at all about watching a stack of DVDs because it was so miserable outside.
I had a massage on the weekend. That's always a good thing.
I went to a cool (that's "cool" in the nerdy sense of the word) forum to see the authors of a book I'm currently reading. I'm not going to tell you who or what book. Even I know it's too geeky to admit in public.
I've run the usual gauntlet of farewell lunches drinks etc for various people at work either a) moving overseas b) changing roles or c) keeping their role but moving interstate.
So, as you can see, you really haven't missed much...It could even be argued that I've been a little dull.
What Jacki did on Hiatus - part 2
The company I work for has a lot of great social and environmental responsibility programs. One of them that's great is called "Community Day".
For Community Day, all staff get one paid day a year to go out and do volunteer work. Usually it is organised by team and this year my team opted to go out and help clear up storm damage at a children's camp on the outskirts of the City.
So last week I headed off early, printed map in hand, ready to help out. Of course, me being me, I managed to take the scenic route (read:get horrendously lost on the way) and arrived a bit late.
We did manage to get most of the heavy lifting done, but unfortunately the storms that caused the damage were far from over and we were sent home early due to getting rained out.
So I took my sodden, muddy self to visit Bec for the rest of the afternoon - we drank cups of tea and watched ridiculous TV shows on her Pay TV channels!
I probably should feel worse about not being able to put in a full day's work volunteering, but it was nice to be rugged up drinking cups of tea with a good friend instead.
For Community Day, all staff get one paid day a year to go out and do volunteer work. Usually it is organised by team and this year my team opted to go out and help clear up storm damage at a children's camp on the outskirts of the City.
So last week I headed off early, printed map in hand, ready to help out. Of course, me being me, I managed to take the scenic route (read:get horrendously lost on the way) and arrived a bit late.
We did manage to get most of the heavy lifting done, but unfortunately the storms that caused the damage were far from over and we were sent home early due to getting rained out.
So I took my sodden, muddy self to visit Bec for the rest of the afternoon - we drank cups of tea and watched ridiculous TV shows on her Pay TV channels!
I probably should feel worse about not being able to put in a full day's work volunteering, but it was nice to be rugged up drinking cups of tea with a good friend instead.
What Jacki did on Hiatus - part 1
I mentioned a weekend away in my last post. Yup, I headed down to the deep south of New South Wales, almost to Bateman's Bay - which is conveniently also close for my sister and cousin to get to from Canberra.
We headed down there on the recent Queen's birthday long weekend. On the down-side there was some pretty hairy weather on the drive down (Jacki: "Is it a problem if I can't actually see the road?" Passengers: "Just follow the car in front with the hazard lights flashing"). I'm a bit of a granny-driver and found it pretty stressful. On the up-side once we got far enough South, we managed to miss the worst of the weather that tore through and made a huge mess of parts of northern NSW.
So 8 of us had a great long weekend, eating and drinking and playing a lot of board games.
From memory we managed at least one game each of....
We headed down there on the recent Queen's birthday long weekend. On the down-side there was some pretty hairy weather on the drive down (Jacki: "Is it a problem if I can't actually see the road?" Passengers: "Just follow the car in front with the hazard lights flashing"). I'm a bit of a granny-driver and found it pretty stressful. On the up-side once we got far enough South, we managed to miss the worst of the weather that tore through and made a huge mess of parts of northern NSW.
So 8 of us had a great long weekend, eating and drinking and playing a lot of board games.
From memory we managed at least one game each of....
- Scrabble
- Speed Scrabble
- Scattergories
- Cluedo
- Pictionary
- Balderdash
- Uno
- Backgammon
We cooked up a storm and even managed a long hike along the beach. Good friends (and family) and good times.
These weekends are never long enough.
Howdy
Hi all, if you're reading this then I guess I can assume that you haven't deserted me over the course of my hiatus.
For those of you who have contacted me to check if I'm OK...or not contacted me but wondered anyway, I'm totally fine. The break started with a weekend away and turned into me just deciding to have a little break to make sure that this is still something I want to do.
And the upshot is that it is something I still want to do!
So read on...hopefully I'll manage to give you something worth reading.
J.
For those of you who have contacted me to check if I'm OK...or not contacted me but wondered anyway, I'm totally fine. The break started with a weekend away and turned into me just deciding to have a little break to make sure that this is still something I want to do.
And the upshot is that it is something I still want to do!
So read on...hopefully I'll manage to give you something worth reading.
J.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
